Mud

Story context

Buckle up, fellow Daoists—this chapter is a masterclass in paranoia. Li Huowang and Blind Chen put their heads together to deal with the mud-devils of Gan Yuan Village, and our boy Huowang even busts out the Daoist bell and the Wandering Lord to flush them out. But just when you think the plan is working, Chen drops the mother of all bombshells: he never called for backup. The person standing right next to him? He’s convinced it’s a Zuowandao trickster wearing Li Huowang’s face. Get ready, because the walls of trust are about to come crashing down.

Why it matters

This is a pivotal chapter for genre-savvy readers. Up until now, we’ve mostly seen Li Huowang as the unreliable point-of-view character, questioning his own sanity. But here, for the first time, *another* character accuses *him* of being the unreliable one. Blind Chen’s logic is sound—if he never sent for reinforcements, then the person claiming to be Li Huowang must be a fake. The twist forces us to ask: what if our perspective has been compromised all along? Pay close attention to Li Huowang’s off-screen conversation with the outsiders—could he have been replaced during that brief moment? Or is Blind Chen simply too paranoid to see the truth? Either way, welcome to the Zuowandao nightmare, where no one is who they say they are.

Quick facts

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Source novel

Dao Gui Yi Xian